So when one like the $118 million LPM Apartments tower prepares to open, people want to take in the view from the top. The 36-story building offers the highest residential views added in downtown Minneapolis since The Carlyle condos were built in 2007. It's the first high-rise apartment tower to be built downtown since the 1980s.

I recently toured the 354-unit apartment tower, at 1369 Spruce Place overlooking Loring Park in Minneapolis (how the tower derives its name), with a group of prospective residents and Business Journal photographer Nancy Kuehn.

Although the lobby furniture, elevator buttons and game-room amenities weren't all set up, the building is worth a look.

The first residents move in Aug. 1. Magellan Development Group has about 11 percent of the apartments leased. The top two floors of penthouse apartments are almost all taken — two single-bedroom units remain.

Other tenants have reserved units and are slowly converting reservations into signed leases as they see the building with their own eyes, according to Kate Heitzman, property manager for Chicago-based Magellan.

"It's really hard to lease site-unseen," Heitzman said. "Now that we can finally bring people in with tours, it's picking up a lot. We're on track."

Almost every renter so far works or already lives downtown, she said.

That was true of the group that toured July 25, just a week before the first 200 units are scheduled to open for residents. It was the third group of between 15 and 20 prospective residents to take one of the Friday pre-opening tours.

Our group, with pink hard hats and yellow construction vests, included a couple of attorneys, a nurse and a corporate recruiter. Each had a specific reason for liking the building, but said the tenant amenities were an important draw. Those include an indoor dog play area, a business office for tenants, a movie room, a game room, a fitness facility, a large outdoor patio with grilling areas, an outdoor yoga space and an outdoor big-screen TV.

The building also has a large lap pool, something that appeals to 33-year-old Matt Pelikan, who will move from an apartment in the St. Anthony Falls district along the Mississippi River. He said he picked LPM Apartments to be closer to his law firm Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi's offices in LaSalle Plaza, where he's an intellectual property litigation attorney.

The rents at LPM are a little more expensive per square foot than his current location, but Peliken said the amenities and location will enable him to drop his gym membership and downtown parking spot, making the cost comparable.

Grant Jordan, a nurse anesthetist at the University of Minnesota, is leaving his North Loop apartment to move in with his boyfriend. They haven't signed a lease in LPM yet, but are eyeing one of the units near the top of the building.

"I like all their amenities on the sixth floor and the views," Jordan said. "The downside is the neighborhood. There's not as many good restaurants and the apartments surrounding it aren't as nice (as the North Loop)." He said. "Hopefully the neighborhood will get better."

Heitzman said there's about 20,000 square feet of retail space in the complex. None of it it leased yet, but it's being marketed to restaurants or grocery-type users, she said.

Joe Kosmanalski, who's 33 and lives in Uptown, said he's sold on the complex but still deciding which style of unit to lease .

"I like the modern design of the building, the vast amount of light that the windows let in and the amenities are just amazing," said Kosmanalski, an attorney at Ameriprise Financial Inc. "I saw this building and just knew that this is where I wanted to be."